Saturday, July 14, 2018

Kochi: Though the state government has decided to ground its seaplane project, the Kochi-based Seabird Seaplane Ltd is likely to begin operations. The company is expecting to receive the approvals in the next three months and kickstart daily trips from the Cochin International Airport Ltd (Cial) to Lakshadweep.
Captain Suraj Jose, CEO of Seabird, said the company was not banking on the business prospects for seaplane tourism in the state because of protest from members of the fishing community. “From the scratch, our plan was to operate services connecting Cial and Lakshadweep and Andaman and
Nicobar Islands. We are all set to do so,” said Jose.
The company, which was founded in 2013, has been awaiting approvals to launch its operations for quite some time now. A seaplane owned by the firm has been parked at Cial for nearly two years and it has paid around Rs 3 lakh as parking fee for the Rs 15-crore (including import duty) eight-seater aircraft.
14/07/18 Vikram Vinod/Times of India